DATE: November 5, 2024
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTED BY: David Luchini, RN, PHN, Director, Department of Public Health
SUBJECT: Retroactive Agreement with Fresno County Superintendent of Schools for the Fresno County Early Stars-Quality Early Learning and Care Program
RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):
TITLE
Approve and authorize the Chairman to execute a retroactive revenue Agreement with Fresno County Superintendent of Schools for the Fresno County Early Stars-Quality Early Learning and Care program for training and technical assistance on health and safety standards at early childhood education sites, effective July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025, total not to exceed $300,000.
REPORT
There is no additional Net County Cost associated with the recommended action. Approval of the recommended action will provide the Department of Public Health (Department) with one year of funding from Fresno County Superintendent of Schools (FCSS) to support the Fresno County Early Stars-Quality Early Learning and Care program. The program provides training, consultation and technical assistance on health and safety standards to early childhood education sites enrolled in the Early Stars program. The funding will support salary and benefits for two Public Health Nurses (PHNs). This item is countywide.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION(S):
There are no viable alternative actions. Should your Board not approve the recommended action, the Department would be unable to fund the services provided to the Early Stars Program.
RETROACTIVE AGREEMENT:
The recommended agreement is retroactive to July 1, 2024. The recommended agreement was received initially as an amendment to Agreement No. A-23-429 from FCSS on May 30, 2024. However, the time required to prepare the amendment did not allow presentation to your Board before the last Board date of the fiscal year (FY) of 2023-24 in order to extend the agreement beyond the agreement expiration date of June 30, 2024. Therefore, the Department had to request for FCSS to convert the amendment into a new agreement.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no increase in Net County Cost associated with the recommended action. The agreement will provide $300,000 for FY 2024-25 to cover salary and benefits for two PHNs and indirect cost recovery 0.30% ($894) of total personnel costs. The salaries and benefits for the two PHNs at 0.72 full-time equivalent (FTE) totals $299,106. The Department’s indirect cost for FY 2024-25 is 24.426%. The recommended agreement will allow the County to use the funds as the local match to draw down Federal dollars under Title TXIX as Federal Financial Participation (FFP) for eligible services. Sufficient appropriation and estimated revenues are included in the Department’s Org 5620 FY 2024-25 Adopted Budget.
DISCUSSION:
On March 26, 2019, your Board approved an agreement with FCSS that allowed Department PHNs to continue connecting County families with high quality licensed care and education providers, while supporting the providers in their efforts for continuous quality improvement of their services. On April 13, 2021, your Board approved a retroactive revenue agreement with FCSS for the Early Care and Education - Early Stars Program for trainings and technical assistance on health and safety standards at early childhood education sites. On August 23, 2022, your Board approved a retroactive First Amendment to the revenue agreement with FCSS extending the term by one year from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023 and increasing the maximum by $340,000 to a total of $945,000. On August 22, 2023, your Board approved a retroactive revenue agreement with FCSS that continued the funding and services for the Early Stars Program from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.
FCSS developed the Fresno County Training and Technical Assistance (T&TA) Hub, in partnership with Central Valley Children’s Services Network, WestEd’s Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC), and the Department to provide coaching, training, technical assistance and assessments to childcare and early learning programs pursuing quality improvement.
The recommended agreement will provide funding for two PHNs to provide technical assistance, consultation and training to local childcare and early learning sites enrolled in FCSS’s Early Stars Program while utilizing the T&TA Hub. In FY 2023-24, the two program PHNs achieved the following:
• Coaching and technical assistance on health/safety best practices to 464 childcare providers
• 13 training to childcare providers on health/safety topics: provider self-care, medication administration, child nutrition, obesity and safety practices
• Consultation and technical assistance to childcare providers for issues such as safe sleep, proper diapering, communicable disease and smoking prevention
Approval of the recommended agreement will allow the Department to continue providing services that address the health and safety issues facing county childcare providers and the families they serve. The agreement contains mutual indemnification requiring each party to indemnify and hold harmless the other party.
REFERENCE MATERIAL:
BAI #42, August 22, 2023
BAI #36, August 23, 2022
BAI #46, April 13, 2021
BAI #40, March 26, 2019
ATTACHMENTS INCLUDED AND/OR ON FILE:
On file with Clerk - Agreement with FCSS
CAO ANALYST:
Ron Alexander